Famous Secretly Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Secretly poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous secretly poems. These examples illustrate what a famous secretly poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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For A Gentleman Who Kissinge His Friend At His Departure Left A Signe Of Blood On Her

by William Strode
 What mystery was this; that I should finde
My blood in kissing you to stay behinde?
'Twas not for want of color that requirde
My blood for paynt: No dye could be desirde
On that fayre silke, where scarlett were a spott
And where the juice of lillies but a blotte.
'Twas not the signe of murther that did taynt
The harmlesse beauty of so pure...Read more of this...

A Paralell Between Bowling And Preferment

by William Strode
 Preferment, like a Game at bowles,
To feede our hope with diverse play
Heer quick it runnes, there soft it rowles:
The Betters make and shew the way.


As upper ground, so great Allies
Doe many cast on theyr desire:
Some uppe are thrust, and forc't to rise,
When those are stopt that would aspire.


Some whose heate and zeale exceed
Thrive well by Rubbs that curb theyr...Read more of this...

Dulcis Memoria

by Henry Van Dyke
 Long, long ago I heard a little song,
(Ah, was it long ago, or yesterday?)
So lowly, slowly wound the tune along,
That far into my heart it found the way:
A melody consoling and endearing;
And still, in silent hours, I'm often hearing
The small, sweet song that does not die away.

Long, long ago I saw a little flower,--
(Ah, was it long ago, or...Read more of this...

The Heart and Service

by Sir Thomas Wyatt
 The heart and service to you proffer'd
With right good will full honestly,
Refuse it not, since it is offer'd,
But take it to you gentlely.

And though it be a small present,
Yet good, consider graciously
The thought, the mind, and the intent
Of him that loves you faithfully.

It were a thing of small effect
To work my woe thus cruelly,
For my good will to be...Read more of this...

The Send-Off

by Wilfred Owen
 Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way
To the siding-shed,
And lined the train with faces grimly gay.

Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray
As men's are, dead.

Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp
Stood staring hard,
Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.
Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp
Winked to the guard.

So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up,...Read more of this...

How To Write The Great American Indian Novel

by Sherman Alexie
All of the Indians must have tragic features: tragic noses, eyes, and arms.
Their hands and fingers must be tragic when they reach for tragic food.

The hero must be a half-breed, half white and half Indian, preferably
from a horse culture. He should often weep alone. That is mandatory.

If the hero is an Indian woman, she is beautiful. She must be slender
and...Read more of this...

Traveling Dream

by Marge Piercy
 I am packing to go to the airport 
but somehow I am never packed. 
I keep remembering more things 
I keep forgetting. 

Secretly the clock is bolting 
forward ten minutes at a click 
instead of one. Each time 
I look away, it jumps. 

Now I remember I have to find 
the cats. I have four cats 
even when I...Read more of this...

So Much I Gazed

by Constantine P Cavafy
 So much I gazed on beauty,
that my vision is replete with it.

Contours of the body. Red lips. Voluptuous limbs.
Hair as if taken from greek statues;
always beautiful, even when uncombed,
and it falls, slightly, over white foreheads.
Faces of love, as my poetry
wanted them.... in the nights of my youth,
in my nights, secretly, met.......Read more of this...

Out in the Garden

by Katherine Mansfield
 Out in the garden,
Out in the windy, swinging dark,
Under the trees and over the flower-beds,
Over the grass and under the hedge border,
Someone is sweeping, sweeping,
Some old gardener.
Out in the windy, swinging dark,
Someone is secretly putting in order,
Someone is creeping, creeping....Read more of this...

Charity

by Robert William Service
 The Princess was of ancient line,
 Of royal race was she;
Like cameo her face was fine,
 With sad serentiy:
Yet bent she toiled with dimming eye,
 Her rice and milk to buy.

With lacework that for pity plead,
 So out of date it seemed,
She sought to make her daily bread,
 As of her past she dreamed:
And though sometimes I heard her...Read more of this...

Mother Earth

by Henry Van Dyke
 Mother of all the high-strung poets and singers departed,
Mother of all the grass that weaves over their graves the glory of the field,
Mother of all the manifold forms of life, deep-bosomed, patient, impassive,
Silent brooder and nurse of lyrical joys and sorrows!
Out of thee, yea, surely out of the fertile depth below thy breast,
Issued in some strange way, thou lying...Read more of this...

The Murdered Lover

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Say a mass for my soul's repose, my brother,
Say a mass for my soul's repose, I need it,
Lovingly lived we, the sons of one mother,
Mine was the sin, but I pray you not heed it.
Dark were her eyes as the sloe and they called me,
Called me with voice independent of breath.
God! how my heart beat; her beauty appalled me,
Dazed me,...Read more of this...

Gangrene

by Philip Levine
 Vous êtes sorti sain et sauf des basses 
calomnies, vous avey conquis les coeurs. 

Zola, J'accuse


One was kicked in the stomach 
until he vomited, then 
 made to put back 
into his mouth what they had 
brought forth; when he tried to drown 
 in his own stew 
he was recovered. "You are 
worse than a ****** or Jew,"...Read more of this...

Who is now Reading This?

by Walt Whitman
 WHO is now reading this? 
May-be one is now reading this who knows some wrong-doing of my past life, 
Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly loved me, 
Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions and egotisms with derision, 
Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.

As if I were not puzzled at myself!...Read more of this...

Reverie of Mahomed Akram at the Tamarind Tank

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   The Desert is parched in the burning sun
   And the grass is scorched and white.
   But the sand is passed, and the march is done,
   We are camping here to-night.
        I sit in the shade of the Temple walls,
     ...Read more of this...

Myself and Mine

by Walt Whitman
 MYSELF and mine gymnastic ever, 
To stand the cold or heat—to take good aim with a gun—to sail a boat—to
 manage
 horses—to beget superb children, 
To speak readily and clearly—to feel at home among common people, 
And to hold our own in terrible positions, on land and sea. 

Not for an embroiderer;
(There will always be plenty of embroiderers—I welcome...Read more of this...

Deer Dancer

by Joy Harjo
 Nearly everyone had left that bar in the middle of winter except the
hardcore.It was the coldest night of the year, every place shut down, but
not us.Of course we noticed when she came in.We were Indian ruins.She
was the end of beauty.No one knew her, the stranger whose tribe we
recognized, her family related to deer, if that's who she was, a...Read more of this...

The Seasons of Her Year

by Thomas Hardy
 I 

Winter is white on turf and tree, 
 And birds are fled; 
But summer songsters pipe to me, 
 And petals spread, 
For what I dreamt of secretly 
 His lips have said! 

II 

O 'tis a fine May morn, they say, 
 And blooms have blown; 
But wild and wintry is my day, 
 My birds make...Read more of this...

1914 II: Safety

by Rupert Brooke
 Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest 
He who has found our hid security, 
Assured in the dark tides of the world that rest, 
And heard our word, 'Who is so safe as we?' 
We have found safety with all things undying, 
The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth, 
The deep night, and birds singing,...Read more of this...

Babylon

by Robert Graves
 The child alone a poet is:
Spring and Fairyland are his.
Truth and Reason show but dim,
And all’s poetry with him. 
Rhyme and music flow in plenty
For the lad of one-and-twenty, 
But Spring for him is no more now 
Than daisies to a munching cow; 
Just a cheery pleasant season, 
Daisy buds to live at ease on.
He’s forgotten how he smiled...Read more of this...

The Quest

by Aleister Crowley
 A part, immutable, unseen,
Being, before itself had been,
Became. Like dew a triple queen
Shone as the void uncovered:
The silence of deep height was drawn
A veil across the silver dawn
On holy wings that hovered. 

The music of three thoughts became 
The beauty, that is one white flame,
The justice that surpasses shame,
The victory, the splendour,
The sacred fountain that is whirled
From depths beyond...Read more of this...

Sonnet LIX

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET LIX. Se al principio risponde il fine e 'l mezzo. IF HIS PASSION STILL INCREASE, HE MUST SOON DIE.  If, of this fourteenth year wherein I sigh,The end and middle with its opening vie,[Pg 82]Nor air nor shade can give me now release,I feel mine ardent passion so...Read more of this...

Like Snow

by Robert Graves
 She, then, like snow in a dark night,
Fell secretly. And the world waked
With dazzling of the drowsy eye,
So that some muttered 'Too much light',
And drew the curtains close.
Like snow, warmer than fingers feared,
And to soil friendly;
Holding the histories of the night
In yet unmelted tracks....Read more of this...

Recorders Ages Hence

by Walt Whitman
 RECORDERS ages hence! 
Come, I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior—I will tell you what to
 say
 of
 me; 
Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover, 
The friend, the lover’s portrait, of whom his friend, his lover, was fondest, 
Who was not proud of his songs, but of the measureless...Read more of this...

From Dewy Dreams

by James Joyce
 From dewy dreams, my soul, arise, 
From love's deep slumber and from death, 
For lo! the treees are full of sighs 
Whose leaves the morn admonisheth. 

Eastward the gradual dawn prevails 
Where softly-burning fires appear, 
Making to tremble all those veils 
Of grey and golden gossamer. 

While sweetly, gently, secretly, 
The flowery bells of morn are stirred 
And the...Read more of this...

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